How to Cook Air Fryer Steak: Perfect and Juicy
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You will love air fryer steak, it’s a game changer. Here’s our perfect and easy recipe for air fryer steak. It truly is so easy, it’s hard to believe that steak can come out so juicy and delicious! Seriously friends, this air fried steak recipe is a game changer.
Can You Air Fry Steak?
Absolutely yes and it’s definitely one of our favorite quick dinners. Our air fryer steak recipe is perfect for two and within minutes, steak dinner is served. You can adjust cooking times to your preferred doneness. Just add some butter or oil, then salt and pepper to the steaks.
Best Air Fryer Steak Recipe
Our recipe is great because it’s not bland and super simple. We add some garlic salt sometimes for extra flavor. You can also add some compound butter during serving for extra flavor. Air fry the steaks and the steaks will come out fantastic! Serve it with a baked potato, mushrooms, a salad, pasta or what ever you want to complete your wonderful steak dinner. You’ll be so pleased with air fried steak that you’ll want to eat it more often. So good and so juicy!
Video: How to Cook Air Fried Steak
Tips on How to Cook Air Fryer Steak
- Preheat air fryer for about 5 minutes. You must pre-heat your air fryer. This will ensure that the steak can get a nice sear.
- Make sure to pat your steak dry of moisture with a paper towel. Lightly oil steak and season with salt and pepper or with your favorite steak seasoning.
- Air fry the steak then flip the steak
- Continue air frying and let steak rest before serving.
- All recipe details and step by step photos are in the recipe box below.
What are the Best Cuts of Steak to Cook?
Look for a steak that has good marbling and fat like rib eye steaks. Other great steak cuts are New York steaks, T-Bones, Porterhouse steaks and some sirloins. Although filet mignon doesn’t have a lot of fat, it’s a tender cut so it cooks well in the air fryer. For other inexpensive cuts or with less marbling, you should cut them and cook them as steak bites. Serve with some air fryer vegetables like asparagus, broccoli or green beans and you’re set!
Here’s more great air fryer recipes.
What are the Best Air Fryers?
Here’s our extensive write up on Air Fryer World’s Best Air Fryer Guide. There’s so many on the market now. You just need to research and find the ones that fits your needs, capacity and style. We group the basket style air fryers into 2 main size groups: 3-4 qt. range & the 5-6 qt. range. There’s oven style and basket style. With so many to choose from, we highlight the ones that are most popular for small to medium sized families. Here’s our favorites:
Good Mid-Sized Air Fryers
“That’s a stylish Air Fryer” was said as we unboxed the Cosori. Beyond being stylish, it has cooked great. The basket is not as tall and wider than most in its size group, which is perfect. You’ll have a lot better results in an air fryer with single layered, spread out foods, then with ones piled high and thick.
The non-stick basket style (non-wire base) & smoothness of the basket tray is also great for clean up.
Has a great ceramic coated basket, one of the longest lasting we’ve used. Super powerful fan that will often cook recipes even faster than other air fryers. We initially returned our first one because we thought we wouldn’t like the basket style. After reconsidering, we bought another and are super glad we did. We love it’s basket and just a platform insert. One less bulky thing to wash. This is a great air fryer.
Good Larger Air Fryers
This is quickly becoming one of our favorite larger basket style air fryers. Great basket size, good controls, cooks nice. Clean up is great. It has become one of our kitchen favorites.
Most of us are familiar with the Instant Pot Brand of pressure cookers. They now make air fryers and it has become a regular in our kitchen. The Vortex plus 9-in-1 is beyond the conventional air fryer. The “plus” boasts features beyond the hot circulating air: Broil, Bake, Dehydrate, Rotisserie, Roast and Re-heat.
Air Fryer Steak
Ingredients
- 2 (6 oz.) ((170g)) steaks , 3/4″ thick rinsed and patted dry
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) olive oil , to coat
- 1/2 teaspoon (0.5 ) garlic powder (optional)
- salt , to taste
- pepper , to taste
- butter
Equipment
Instructions
- Lightly coat steaks with olive oil. Season both sides of steaks with garlic powder (optional), salt and pepper (we’ll usually season liberally with salt & pepper).
- Preheat the Air Fryer at 400°F for 4 minutes. Once preheated, place steaks in air fryer bakset or rack.
- Air Fry for 400°F for 10-18 minutes, flipping halfway though (cooking time dependent on how thick and cold the steaks are plus how done you prefer your steaks).If you want steaks to be cooked more, add additional 3-6 minutes cooking time.
- Add pat of butter on top of steak, cover with foil and allow steak to rest for 5 minutes.Season with additional salt and pepper, if needed. Serve immediately.
Notes
- Recipes were cooked in 3-4 qt air fryers. If using a larger air fryer, the recipe might cook quicker so adjust cooking time.
- If cooking in more than two steaks, make sure not to overcrowd the Air Fryer basket. If needed, cook in batches to avoid overcrowding. The first batch will take longer to cook if Air Fryer is not already pre-heated.
- Remember to set a timer to shake/flip/toss the food as directed in recipe.
Video
Nutrition Information
Easy Beef Recipes:
- Salisbury Steak with onion gravy
- Skillet Steak Bites with garlic butter
- Click Here for our –> Best Air Fryer Recipes
- Our Air Fryer Steak Bites with Mushrooms Recipe Rocks!
This air fried steak recipe was originally published in 2018 and re-published in 2019 with updated video.
22 Comments on “How to Cook Air Fryer Steak: Perfect and Juicy”
Color is improved if you emulsify ½ tsp of Kitchen Bouquet in the olive oil and then rubbing it all over the surface and sides of the steak. Adjust the amount of Kitchen Bouquet to your preference to get the degree of browning you desire.
Hi there,
I am wondering what kind of steak you used for this air fryer recipe?
Kathy
Hi Kathy, in the photo we used small New York strip steaks.
I’ve used this recipe a few times now and every time is comes out perfect! Thank you!
I did my steaks tri tip 9 min they were tough
Any suggestions
Hi Linda, tri tip steaks can often vary in size. So if you’re air frying the same size again, try cooking it for less time, maybe 6-7 minutes.
Can you marinade them in Dale sauce then put them in air fryer
Hi Debbie. Marinating the steaks in Dale sauce first might burn the steak. If you want to brush some on when the steak is close to finishing that would be better. That way the sauce can cook into the steak a bit without burning.